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Smithfield Foods is now generating renewable natural gas

Published by , Assistant Editor
Energy Global,


Smithfield Foods Inc., in partnership with Duke Energy and OptimaBio LLC, is now producing renewable natural gas (RNG) from the wastewater treatment system at its Tar Heel, N.C. pork processing facility, which will help power more than 2000 local homes and businesses. The three companies are utilising the pork processing facility to provide renewable energy to consumers while reducing their own carbon footprint.

The US$14 million project is the latest from Smithfield Renewables, Smithfield's platform to unify and accelerate its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% by 2025. Through partnership with Duke Energy, roughly 140 000 dekatherms of RNG per year will be transported to natural gas plants and used to generate electricity for consumers.

To date, this is one of Smithfield's largest renewable energy projects involving wastewater, and its first in North Carolina, US. Smithfield also has "wastewater-to-energy" projects at its Milan, Missouri; Grayson, Kentucky; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota facilities in the US, which are used to power their modified steam boilers.

The company's Tar Heel, N.C., project utilises a gas upgrading and injection system operated by OptimaBio LCC, a bioenergy project developer, which leverages the facility's three million gal./d wastewater treatment system to collect and clean biogas through an existing on-site digester and convert it into RNG.

Once converted, the RNG is injected into the Piedmont Natural Gas system, and then transported to Duke Energy to produce electricity. This project will help Duke Energy satisfy state swine waste-to-energy mandates under the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard law in North Carolina. Under this law, Duke Energy must generate 0.20% of its retail sales from swine waste by 2024.

In addition to creating renewable energy at its facilities, Smithfield is implementing projects on its farms that transform manure into RNG. These projects capture methane from manure, and clean and convert it into RNG, which is then injected into local natural gas distribution systems for homes and businesses. In the next decade, Smithfield is implementing "manure-to-energy" projects in at least six states in the US, including Arizona, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/bioenergy/13012020/smithfield-foods-now-generating-renewable-natural-gas/

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